The sane create; the mad are merely miserable. (Adam Phillips, from Going Sane)

Friday, April 8, 2011

My neat discovery of the week

I got into a serious tizzy on Tuesday after reading about the forgotten volcano under the Auckland suburb of Grafton. The news item mentions a 19th Century explorer named Hochstetter who, in actual fact, noted the existence of this volcano in his 1864 map of the area, before it was covered in houses.

...AND I JUST HAPPENED TO BE LOOKING AT THIS VERY MAP LAST WEEK FOR MY ART RESEARCH!

"Checks on the second oldest geological map of the Auckland Volcanic Field, published by early explorer and geologist Ferdinand von Hochstetter in 1864, showed four volcanic vents in the vicinity of the city's Domain."

Talk about synchronicity. Here it is, the second oldest geological map of Auckland, by Hochstetter:

Detail below, showing the four volcanic vents (see the red oval). Just north of the four vents are written the words, 'St Stephen School' and 'Tuffcrater with Eruption Centre'.

My friend Andy helped me decipher these words written across the four vents: it is 'Tuffkegel', which is German for tuff cone.